Russia 'very alarmed' by Iran nuclear report

Iran was driven deeper into international isolation yesterday after Russia said it was "very alarmed" by a leaked UN report which directly accused the country of building a nuclear weapon for the first time.

By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

5:38PM GMT 19 Feb 2010

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Moscow had lost patience with the regime after UN weapons inspectors declared for the first time on Thursday that it was seeking to "weaponise" its nuclear stocks.

"We are very alarmed and we cannot accept this, that Iran is refusing to co-operate with the IAEA," Mr Lavrov said. "Some questions remain on the table and Iran has so far not reacted to them but they are rather serious and we need to understand how several documents concerning military nuclear technology found their way to Iran.

"Clear explanations are needed."

The strong denunciation was a departure for Russia, which has been a brake on efforts to censure Iran until recently.

Iran suffered a double blow on Thursday when a G20 report on money laundering identified the Islamic Republic as the worst violator of laws against funding terrorism and the proliferation of weapons. The report also hinted at concerns that banks in Syria and Turkey, two other nations cited for involvement in terrorism financing, were acting as an axis to help Iran evade UN financial sanctions.

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America's Treasury Department said the report would be a powerful weapon against Iran. "We welcome [the] call today for its members and all jurisdictions to apply effective countermeasures to protect their financial sectors from the money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from Iran."

The report prompted Germany's two biggest insurance companies, Munich Re and Allianz, to yesterday announce a pullout from Iran.

German leaders declared that Berlin would "rigorously" pursue tighter sanctions against Iran as long as the country refused to curtail its nuclear ambitions.

Guido Westerwelle, the Foreign Minister, said: "Of course Iran has the right to use nuclear energy for civil purposes, but it has no right to create nuclear weapons."

Diplomats hailed the renewed vigour of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in pursuing Iranian violations of United Nation resolutions. The report appeared to reflect the tough private tone of chief inspector Olli Heinonen. One diplomat said Mr Heinonen had been "unmuzzled."

A western diplomat said: "The circumlocutions of previous reports are gone, making it harder for Iran to cherry-pick any positives, leaving less room for some countries to rationalise Iran's course, give it the benefit of the doubt."

But there was no sign that Iran was ready to abandon the bluster it uses to deflect criticism of its nuclear plans.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, used a ceremony to parade the country's frst domestically built naval destroyer to declare the Islamic Republic could never possess a nuclear weapon because its use is religiously forbidden. "Recently some Western and US officials have been repeating some outdated and nonsensical comments that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons," said Khamenei. "Our religious beliefs are against the use of such weapons. We in no way believe in an atomic weapon and do not seek one."